


The Secret Glade

by Iamnamedsilence



Category: Pathfinder: Kingmaker (Video Game)
Genre: Enthusiastic Consent, F/F, Femmeslash February 2021, Fluff and Smut, Healing, International Fanworks Day 2021, Post-Canon, Sort Of, Tentacles, Weird Biology, magically powered sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:15:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29441025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iamnamedsilence/pseuds/Iamnamedsilence
Summary: The fire went out, but the glade was filled with otherwordly light, and there was a slender silhouette in front of the queen, surrounded with glow and with a sweet fragrance. There was a nymph walking on the glade, adorned with flowers, her skin as green as foliage.Nyrissa was standing before the queen, and her face was unlike every expression the queen had seen in her: a little shy, a little embarrassed, yet still so beautiful it was almost painful.They were looking at each other for a while in silence before the queen decided to approach. She smiled softly.(Or, some post-game smut)
Relationships: The Baroness/Nyrissa (Pathfinder: Kingmaker)
Kudos: 7





	The Secret Glade

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Valentine's Day (today)
> 
> Happy International Fanwork's Day (tomorrow)
> 
> Happy Femmeslash February
> 
> ...and happy day-of-finally-finishing-this-game to me!

In the very heart of Stolen Lands, in the forest near the capital city, there is a hidden glade. It is not easy to find it, although it is supposed to be located somewhere near the shrine build for the goddess of the land. The shrine is there because the glade is too secret and it would be close to blasphemy to build somewhere there. On the glade the most beautiful flowers in the kingdom bloom, all year round, even in the winter, always bright and fragrant, like something of the First World, but not dangerous at all (and people of Stolen Lands know well, how dangerous things from First World can be).

Very few people are able to find the glade that is said to be a sacred place. And those who do are usually one of two kinds: either lovers searching for blessing or people fighting against terrible curses. Very often both – and that is for a reason.

It was when the queen of this land defeated the ancient evil fey, the reason behind all the misfortunes that had been hitting the land for many, many centuries. The curse was lifted and the land was now able to recover and to prosper, and the newly established kingdom had its chance to survive longer, than all its predecessors. Of course, there was still politics, often tangled, and the queen knew she will have to be able to deal with her neighbors and the mundane social problems and that they were a danger that shouldn’t be overlooked: but there was no shadowy presence anymore, that would plot the queen’s demise from the First World. There was no curse, and some started to say the land was now blessed.

Because the spring came and fields and forests and rivers came to life with eagerness unseen in this part of Golarion. And then the summer came and it had been already known that the crops will be exceptional this year. Some citizens started to fear this abundant harvest, claiming that this is another supernatural trick, but high priests Tristan and Jhod Kavken calmed them down. It is a blessing, not a curse, the land is recovering after the series of misfortunes and the years that are to come are going to be the best yet.

And then some said, that the land was blessed by a certain being, by its own protectress goddess, and that this goddess has a name: Nyrissa.

While very few knew this goddess is the same being, that had been throwing all the misfortunes upon the land, a reverence for Nyrissa was starting to grow, a cult of her, that was going to rival the cults of the major deities worshiped in the land. The citizens didn’t know many details, but they already concluded, that the new goddess was the one who helped the queen in her final battle. In this case, the queen needed to recognize the cult and found the temple.

But asked about the goddess the queen remained silent and only her closest friend knew why.

„She must be happy now,” the queen thought when she heard people revering Nyrissa’s name. A nymph once had wanted a land for herself, who had been punished for her ambition in a cruel way only most powerful of the fey could think about, who had under the curse for countless years and who had brought death and demise upon countless being, was now free again and, in a way, victorious. She didn’t call herself a goddess of Stolen Land, but the people gave her this title and the queen knew this was what would bring Nyrissa happiness. And the queen thought Nyrissa deserved happiness, maybe, no matter how absurd it was, more than anyone else in the land. So the queen thought of the nymph being happy and that made her happy in return – despite there was some shade upon this joy.

The queen was in love, had been for a long time now, but after the Lantern King was defeated, the one she loved just disappeared and didn’t show her face even in dreams. Was she afraid? Was she ashamed of all the things she had done? The queen wanted to tell her, that she didn’t have to, not now, when she was free when they all were free again. The queen wanted to have her by her side, no matter how hard it would be for a mortal and a fae from First World, now elevated to an actual goddess.

Oh, she knew she was having Nyrissa at her side, the plentiful harvest was proof. This was an alliance of a monarch and a diety, this was important for the land. The queen however wanted something more than that – but she was going to accept the reality of not getting that if it was beyond her reach.

She was, however, longing. Love can lift curses – love can also make your heart ache for the sight of the one you love, for the sound of their voice, and that was what was happening with the queen. She had been fighting for so long and she won, but the prize she was hoping for was beyond her reach.

The queen knew she was not the first one and how desire had been used against her unfortunate predecessors, how Nyrissa had been toying with them, promising them her undying love. She hadn’t made those promises to the queen – not in the way she had used to when she was still under the curse. She had told the queen she loved her and that from now on she was going to protect the kingdom. Wasn’t that enough?

It should be.

The queen decided to be content with the prosperity of the land. She was overseeing the affairs, making sure, that the exceptional harvest didn’t happen to be the way for the rich to become even richer, but rather that everyone in the kingdom had enough to feel safe about their future. A joke started to circulate, that in Stolen Lands even the goblins are fat and round, and less dangerous to the people than elsewhere. It was not far from the truth.

The queen enjoyed this prosperity. She was taking long trips across her domain, sometimes lonely ones, just to see how everything is perfect at last.

On one such trips, the night and fatigue caught the queen in the middle of the forest. It was close to the capital enough to be safe, so the queen, a warrior, and adventurer herself was no concern about making a camp on a small, lovely glade. The summer night was warm and the stars blinked above the queen’s head as she stared into the sky before she fell asleep.

A rustle in the grass woke her up, the sound of silent footsteps. The queen got up, the adventurer’s instinct telling her to be ready.

The fire went out, but the glade was filled with otherwordly light, and there was a slender silhouette in front of the queen, surrounded with glow and with a sweet fragrance. There was a nymph walking on the glade, adorned with flowers, her skin as green as foliage.

Nyrissa was standing before the queen, and her face was unlike every expression the queen had seen in her: a little shy, a little embarrassed, yet still so beautiful it was almost painful.

They were looking at each other for a while in silence before the queen decided to approach. She smiled softly.

„Hello,” she said. „I didn’t expect you here. This is a pleasant surprise.”

„I decided it is time I finally came to you,” the nymph answered. „I… I needed some time. I guess I need some more, but mortal life is short and I did not want to keep you waiting for too long. I have caused you enough pain already.”

The queen couldn’t deny that what Nyrissa said was true. Still, she had no reasons to hold the grudge for the deeds committed under the curse and Eldest’s compulsion.

„How did you find me?” she asked instead.

„I am bound to you as I am to the land. It is not hard to follow your footsteps now – and it was not very hard to do it in the past. The only thing I can ask your forgiveness for is that I didn’t do it sooner.”

She grabbed the queen’s hand and the queen felt her fingers, colder than human, skin structure reminding of the surface of a leaf.

„You told me you needed time. I understand it.”

Nyrissa shook her head.

„I still think too much time would be needed for me to come to terms with the things I’ve done. The lives I’ve destroyed… But if I am ever to make up for this, then I cannot forget, that you almost become one of my victims as well,” a faint, sad smile appeared on the nymph’s lips. „You defied me, and you saved me, and this is also something I probably would never be able to repay for. You know, gratefulness is something that happens among us of the First World, but guilt is not. So I might know how to be grateful, but I don’t know how should I deal with guilt.”

„Maybe guilt is not necessary?” the queen asked. She took the opportunity to hold Nyrissa’s hand, although she was not sure, if what she was doing – what feelings were stirring with her with the nymph so close and the flowery fragrance sweet and intoxicating. Some spells and natural magical powers could work like an aphrodisiac on the human being, but the queen, proficient with detecting and identifying magic was aware this was not a spell used against her on purpose. A natural ability? Maybe. If so, Nyrissa had never used it against her when she had still been her enemy. „You didn’t act out of your own will.”

„Not entirely. I don’t feel like I was entirely forced – I wanted my punishment to be over, and I had been doing it for so long, that I’m not sure anymore, what if this was really me and what was the curse. And even before… Don’t be mistaken, I might have regrets, I might even feel guilt, but I was never innocent. I wanted power, I liked it. I still do and I enjoy that I got this land in the end.”

„If so, then in the need for power we are here together. I also made this land my own. What matters is, how we use this power.”

Nyrissa nodded.

„And how we decide to share it,” she added.

There was something almost shy, almost bashful in her. The way she tried to both look into the queen’s eyes and to avoid them. The way her fingers trembled. The way she breathed – if a fey from First World are breathing indeed – fast and shallow, with her chest moving in the way that it, in turn, made the queen wanting to look somewhere else.

The queen remembered that night soon after she first entered Stolen Lands – a lovely maiden whose green body was covered in leaves and flowers only coming to her at night, asking for help. And the queen, not the queen yet back then, fell for it, because in her heart she had always had a soft spot for beautiful women in need. This beautiful woman turned out to be much more complex and saving her had cost a lot. And now this was almost the same, with the low voice, that made the queen shiver.

Only this time Nyrissa wasn’t lying or trying to use her.

„You are already considered a protector deity,” the queen said.

„And you are the ruler. This is not unseen, work the ruler and the god of a to work together – if there aren’t any grudges between them.”

„But there aren’t any between us, Nyrissa!” the queen exclaimed. „And I believe we had established it already!”

„Yes. You also told me you loved me.”

„And so did you. That didn’t change, I believe?”

„It did not. But I manipulated countless of your predecessors – I need to know what do you want, from me, from us, from the bond between us.”

Was the nymph hopeful? The queen tried to keep her enthusiasm in check. There had been a history of deception and lies between them, one trying to use, manipulate and kill the other, the other outsmarting her and using all her resources to counter the attacks. Now the communication needed to be clear – but one of them was still fey and the other a mortal.

The queen took a deep breath.

„If it is possible, then I would like us to be lovers,” she said. „If this is possible and if it is something you want because I don’t want it as gratitude or as payment of your debts, or as another pact that would bind either of us.”

Nyrissa smiled.

„It would never be something that would bind me. And I don’t want to bind you. I had promised myself to some of your predecessors, but I’ve never considered giving them that reward. But you… It would not be a reward, but something I want myself.”

The queen should probably have said something more, but at that very moment the joy, love, and desire overcome her, and soon her hand was on the nymph’s face and her lips on the nymph’s lips.

She wanted it for so long. She dreamed of it even when she doubted it would ever be possible.

Nyrissa’s lips were delicate as rose petals and they tasted of herbs and honey, not as the lips of any mortal woman would. And when the nymph answered the kiss, the queen felt, that she needs to keep in control, or she will be lost to the world, with only this kiss existing.

She remembered, that Nyrissa had been indeed using desire against some of her other victims. The Stag Lord mentioned a lady that would become his lover and co-ruler once he would manage to secure his position. Irovetti had this awful, vulgar sculpture made, the queen burned it in the end. There must have been others in the past, lured by the same promises.

None of them had got Nyrissa’s love because Nyrissa was not able to love back then. None of them had got to touch the woman they desired, because this had been just another false promise. The queen wondered, why Nyrissa didn’t try it against her. She would be an easy target if fed with what had not been untrue: with the promise of love once the curse is lifted.

But in the end, Nyrissa didn’t use it and in the end now, when it was honest and true the queen was able to believe it and to reach out for what she wanted.

She made herself stop the kiss however, her instincts still telling her, that fey’s magic was dangerous even when used without false intent. No matter how she wanted to lose herself, she needed to retain at least a little control.

The nymph looked into her eyes, dazed as if the magic was influencing her as well.

„What is the matter?” she asked.

„It is alright. Let me take a breath.”

„All the breaths you need, my beloved,” green fingers stroke the queen’s cheek. „I knew, even under my curse, that you are special, that you are different from all the others. That’s why I was afraid of you and that’s why I tried to kill you so soon. Because deep in my heart I knew you will be the one who will defeat me. And that’s what you did, in the end...” the queen felt slender, delicate fingers stroking then the nape of her neck. Their lips might have separated, but the nymph’s body was now pressed against her, leaning against her.

This was still more than just normal human desire, and no matter how much the Queen wanted to trust Nyrissa now, she was aware something is not exactly as it should be.

„Are you using magic?” she managed to ask.

„Are you...” Nyrissa started and from her hurt expression, the queen saw, that „accusing me” or „suspecting me” was going to be the rest of the sentence. Sadly, this wouldn’t be unlikely. „Oh,” the nymph said instead. „Oh, I see.”

The flowery fragrance faded, the air cleared. There was magic in use indeed, a moment ago, and now it stopped. The queen felt it – but if it influenced her desire, it was too small to really notice a change.

Nyrissa stepped back a little and the queen felt a sudden brush of cold night air where a moment ago green skin was so close to her body.

„I’m sorry. It just happened. I guess it is something my kind has…? But I understand if you feel I’m trying to manipulate you with it. I can only assure that I was not.”

The queen sighed.

It would never be easy to love someone who had been using lies, manipulation, and false promises for so many centuries – and it would never be easy to love a fey, a being of First World’s chaos, magic, and glamour. But no one promised it would be easy.

„Can you control this ability?”

„I’m not sure. The last time it was in use was… It had been so long since I had a lover, and he was not human, so it was different. This is not a spell I would use against it. It is just a part of what I am, but I can try if you find it uncomfortable...”

So it must have been something so natural, the nymph didn’t even consider using it as a spell or weapon – even after hundreds of years of scheming. Because for the fey, it must have been not significant – and the queen was the first mortal Nyrissa interacted with after regaining her feelings, so it was, in fact, a completely new kind of interaction for her.

Love, to work, needs trust. Even the fey, for whom twisting the reality with words, with illusions is part of their chaotic nature, understand that. Trust is not easy to build with someone you had tried to destroy.

Nyrissa was afraid, even, when się tried to hide it, because showing fear to a mortal is not something a powerful being from First World would like to do.

„You are concerned,” the queen remarked. She took Nyrissa’s hands in her, stroking the smooth, leaf-like skin.

„It is not easy, you know. Not when I still remember what kind of a person I was not so long ago. It would be easy to say that was not me, but it was me. I remember everything I’ve done, every thought, every scheme, and every deception. And I know, that I might do something that would be too much for you and that you can stop trusting me. I am what I am, it would be too much to expect trust from any mortal.”

„I chose to trust you. This is always a choice,” the queen smiled softly. „Not only with you, or with any other fey, but I’d trust you more than any other fey. I held your feelings in my hands, that is enough to know, how they look like… But trusting anyone is a choice. I am a ruler of my land and I must be constantly cautious – it would be to easy to become paranoid. But that would benefit no one, not me, not the people of this land, not those around me. So I choose to trust where it is possible. This might be hard sometimes, as it is hard to build trust, but you are doing well, my love. The people of this land already call you their goddess.”

Nyrissa smiled sadly.

„It makes me happy, but they have no idea...”

„You work on it. You are doing your best. It can take some time, but I think you have enough patience? And I am here for you, as much as I can, as long, as I can.”

She touched Nyrissa’s cheek again and the nymph remained silent, but she leaned into the touch, her eyes closed, lips parted. The queen used this opportunity to kiss her again and met welcoming softness and hands reaching to embrace her. The dazing magic and stunning smell were there, still present, but a little weaker, although Nysrissa didn’t seem any less eager.

„I’m not sure how you would react to some things...” she said, however, as their lips parted.

„What things?” the queen asked.

Then, she felt something stroking along her arm. Not a hand, since one of Nyrissa’s hands was in her hair and the other higher on her shoulder. There was a green tendril, a vine, climbing up the queen’s arm, part of the structure Nyrissa had on her back, that the queen used to refer to as „wings”, for the lack of a better word.

„Oh, all right,” the queen said, a little surprised, but not discouraged.

Some more tendrils were there, waiting.

„I didn’t have to...”

„It is alright, they are part of you… I just never thought you can use them for something.”

Nyrissa laughed.

„You hadn’t fight me. You would see then… but I can use them to touch you if I have your consent.”

„You have,” the queen said. „Do I have your consent to kiss you everywhere I want to?”

The nymph’s face, neck, and chest took a slightly darker shade of green. A blush.

„Yes. Yes please.”

The queen smiled widely and proceeded, with lips again, and then the nymph’s neck, while her hands slowly slid down and up again Nyrissa’s sides. Her fingers met foliage and flowers around Nyrissa’s chest and found it disappearing and parting.

She had never really thought if this was just a part of the nymph's body, growing there permanently, or if this garlands on chest and hips were there for modesty – but what kind of modesty would a fey from First World need, especially when many less powerful nymphs were naked (in a mortal sense at least). Maybe it was a kind of adornment. Maybe two or all of those things (although the modesty aspect was highly unlikely). What mattered now was, that the queen was looking at the breasts not much unlike human ones, albeit in shades of green. They were also sensitive, as it turned out, as the ones of a humanoid mortal would be. As the queen slowly put her hand on one of them, Nyrissa gasped softly and the vine tendrils pressed against the queen’s back, and one of them tried even to slid underneath the shirt.

„Let me take this off,” the queen said.

It was not easy to separate now, but she wanted to feel Nyrissa’s body against her naked skin. As she took the clothes off – as quickly, as it was possible – the nymph sat down on the grass. The wing-like petals on her back spread gracefully around her and her eyes glowed, as she was watching the queen undressing.

Finally, the queen sank on her knees next to her fey lover, hand on the chin to make stealing another kiss easier, hands on the narrow waist. There were some places, where Nyrissa’s skin was uneven, tiny bumps, thorns growing from her skin. The thorns were soft, mostly, but the queen supposed they might have been sharp in the past, protecting the nymph’s body and indicating her cruel nature. They were now another remnant of this long nightmare.

The queen found herself grabbed – with arms, and legs that hooked on her hips, and with the vines – and dragged down, until she was pressed against her lover below her.

It was a little like being pinned down, only the one doing the pinning was below her. Which was unusual, but not unpleasant, as both Nyrissa’s hands and tendrils proceeded with mapping and exploring the queen’s body. And it made the task the queen planned a little harder: concentrating on it was as demanding, as spellcasting in the middle of the fight.

The queen was, however, proficient with combat spellcasting, and she had already proven her determination when it came to foiling Nyrissa’s plans. She kissed the Nymph’s neck, again, then let her lips slide down, toward the soft curve of a breast, towards the smooth belly, and farther down. As she did that, the vines didn’t try to stop her. They, however, managed to find week spots themselves and the queen find herself with one curling around her nipple and the other stroked her inner thigh. Nyrissa’s fingers on the other hand just held her head and stroked her hair.

„You are continuing to be a challenge, my love,” the queen gasped. The vine on her thigh climbed a little higher, teased playfully, and retreated.

„Doesn’t the challenge makes the reward more precious?” she heard.

„As if this reward wasn’t already the best I’ve ever got...”

Because one can be an adventurer elevated to the ruler of their own land, but getting the graces and love of a lovely person is a treasure of the highest value. And making the one you love happy…

She kissed the inside of Nyrissa’s thighs and she felt the sweet flowery scent intensifying. As she licked up, she felt on her tongue something light as dew and sweet as honey. The nymph’s body here opened like a flower, and this comparison was more justified than it would be with a mortal woman because the flesh here resembled rose petals.

The queen ran her tongue and fingers along these and felt the fingers in her hair grabbing tighter. It might look a little different, but the reaction was the same as a mortal woman’s would be.

The mortal woman however wouldn’t have those vine-like tendrils, that would provide a distraction. They were bolder now, when they found the right places and they were stroking and pressing, and they forced the queen to pause for gasps. She felt them sliding between her tights, stroking her lower lips and clit, then venturing farther.

„You are not going… to… defeat me...” the queen managed to say.

She heard laughter, a soft, tender echo of the mischievous laughter Nyrissa was capable of.

„Oh, maybe I am, in the end, beloved. Maybe I am.”

In response, the queen let her finger dive into the soft flower-like flesh. The Nymph shouted, the tendrils twitched and got tense.

So close, she is close, the queen thought.

She was not far from her own climax as well. She felt her tight trembling and shaking.

But she was not going to let Nyrissa win, not then, when they were enemies, not now, where they were lovers. Her tongue found the right place among the petals, pressed and swirled on it, as the finger pushed farther inside.

Nyrissa shouted again, one of her hands grabbed the queen’s hair, tight.

And then the queen felt a sudden surge of magic around her, just before her own orgasm hit, and for a brief moment, everything went white, as she was blinded and stunned by magic and pleasure.

As she regained consciousness, her head was on Nyrissa’s thigh, the Nymph sitting up and stroking her lover’s hair with a sweet, dazed smile on her face.

There also was something… something different around.

The queen got up slowly.

They had been laying in the grass at the beginning. Now they were in the middle of a field of flowers. Countless shapes and colors around them, the sweet smell in the night air, the faint glow around the delicate petals.

These were not the deadly bloom that had been used as a plague against Stolen Lands in the past, but flowers native to the land, although not all of them blooming in this time of year – and all of them had the mark of First World on them: larger, than usual, more colorful, more fragrant and with a magical glow.

„You did it,” the queen said.

Nyrissa leaned to kiss her.

„You did it,” she said, as their lips parted. „You gave me love, pleasure, and joy. You made me whole again. You are making me creating beautiful things, and I’ve never thought I can do something like this.’

She ran her fingers on one of the flowers, and the entire meadow moved as if it was following its creator’s touch.

„You always could, beloved,” the queen said. „I’m happy you can see it now.”

They say, that each time the queen was visited by her fey lover, the chambers and the entire castle smelled of flowers and the servants found petals afterward. But the only place, where the flowers created of Nyrissa’s love and pleasure remained was this glade in the woods: a proof of blessing, a proof of bonds of love and building trust, a promise to the land and to Nyrissa herself, that even after such a long nightmare one can be healed and find joy again.

**Author's Note:**

> I went through the tabletop campaign to find Nyrissa's stats, then told myself "fuck it" and gave her some powers Paizo or Owlcats didn't consider.


End file.
